Orla Whalley

“Leadership is not about your competencies, skills and personality. It’s first and foremost about being in touch with what you care about and then going for it.”

This is a quote from the FED book. I have it up on my desk at work. It first appealed to me because I’m not a ‘people manager’ and I liked the thought that I could be a leader regardless of whether I had the title to go with it. However, after a while, I started to wonder what that phrase really meant. Surely leadership really was all about learning the right skills and demonstrating the right personality at the right time. I was really putting in the effort to do what the book told me to do – but it was hard work.  I seemed to be connected to the bigger picture of what I wanted to do, but not always with what I was doing day to day and, instead of feeling satisfied in what I had delivered, I often felt frustrated with both myself and in what I had achieved.

It was only when I got my new, and current,  job that I started to understand what those two sentences were getting at. I suddenly found myself immersed in something big, something that really held my attention and interest – and for the first time in a long time I got emotionally engaged with what I was doing as well as who I was being. Suddenly this leadership stuff started to come a lot more easily. I am so involved in what I want to deliver that I don’t have to think so hard about bringing the energy and engagement to the table, because I believe in what I’m doing and I’m determined to make it happen.

Leadership inquiry: Think about what really matters to you, what you really care about. How are you bringing this energy to what you are delivering every day? What do you notice about you and your leadership when you believe in what you are doing? How is it different when you are not bringing what matters to you to what you are doing?

By Orla Whalley

Orla is Finance Academy Manager at E.ON responsible for leading the redevelopment of the UK’s online Academy. She is also mum to two young children who are teaching her how to look at the world from a different perspective.